For the Biotechnology Industry Organization, key developing markets pose particular challenges in terms of
IP and also in a wider context. LSIPR spoke to Joe Damond and Lila Feisee about international affairs.

People say the world is getting smaller. In some ways, that’s true. Global trade, the Internet, affordable international travel and instant communications have all made access easier. If you’re a biotechnology company today, you’re as likely to sell product in China as in Kentucky. But paradoxically, a smaller world is also a bigger world: greater ease of doing business means more business to do.

Developing countries provide huge opportunities for those who can operate effectively in them, but there are dangers too. And even though one of the symptoms of our shrinking world is that law, rules and regulations are trending towards harmonisation, there is a long way to go before companies can have confidence that they will be treated the same way wherever they operate.

That’s where the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO) comes in. Joe Damond, senior vice president of international affairs, is responsible for advancing the interests of the biotech industry around the world.